Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently shared an innovative blueprint for a city that would be built on as a hybrid enveloping the principles of democracy, capitalism, and decentralization. 

His commentary came during replies to a post on Farcaster, the cryptocurrency luminary’s social media platform of choice. 

Source: Vitalik Buterin .

For-profit cities

The topic at hand was the idea of “for-profit cities,” something that evokes the image of “Walmartopia” or “Teslaville,” but in reality would treat city governance as an offshoot of enterprise. 

Responding to the question of whether cities should “be for profit institutes or public good,” Buterin advocated for a hybrid approach:

“We want public infrastructure to work well for all income levels, we want cities to be positive-sum for the nation and the world, we have humanitarian values, we don't want homelessness ‘solved’ with ‘give them one-way bus tickets to other cities’.”

In Buterin’s utopian vision, citizens would have greater access to “assets” that give them “governance” privileges while landowners would see a decrease in their stakes coupled with an increase in taxes. 

“The argument is that this creates better incentive alignment with the whole city's success,” wrote Buterin. He added that “land value taxes in particular give government the best incentives to affect what they can change (local public goods, which affect land value), while leaving the full value of anything built on the land in the hands of the local owner, who is the one who can affect that.”

Buterin’s vision closely resembles a decentralized autonomous organization scheme coupled with taxation and profit incentivization. According to political theory, this would effectively socialize the democratic process while establishing (or maintaining) a capitalist status quo. 

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